For the first time ever, astronomers have discovered a vast cloud of high-energy particles called a wind nebula around a rare ultra-magnetic neutron star. A neutron star is the crushed core of a massive star that ran out of fuel, collapsed under its own weight, and exploded as a supernova, which are the strongest magnets in the universe. After reviewing the discovery of a newly found nebula which surrounds a magnetar known as Swift J1834.9-0846, a team researcher George Younes, a postdoctoral researcher at George Washington University in Washington found an unusual lopsided glow about 15 light-years across centered on the magnetar. ...

Just one day into the multi-week trial, an unnamed female juror was granted dismissal due to the woman’s claims of being visited by the deceased victim in the case. Justice Glen Poelman received a letter from the juror which stated “I have a gift of being an intuitive and medium, and although I did not believe this gift would impact my ability to provide judgment on this case based solely on the facts presented before me in court … I am wrong.” The Court of Queen’s Bench judge, read the contents of the letter into the court record, which offered this explanation;...

Alien hunters and astronomers alike are now turning to the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) located in California in the hope of detecting an artificial radio signal. Headed by members of the SETI Institute, astronomers will target a star system relatively close to Earth, specifically focusing on Trappist 1, a red dwarf-type star that hosts to at least 3 exoplanets. The ATA has been used to “listen in” on star systems that NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and other exoplanet-hunting missions have confirmed the presence of exoplanets, allowing Kepler to identify the size and orbit of each exoplanet. Astronomers can then determine if that planet is located in...

Two giant sinkholes are now approaching a dangerous size, and threatening the lives of their respective local residents. The west Texas towns of Kermit and Wink, are watching these massive sinkholes get even bigger, after major oil production stopped, leaving underground cavities that are causing the surface to collapse. Wink Sink No. 1 and Wink Sink No. 2, as they are referred to as, have not only residents but scientists extremely concerned, leading geologists at Southern Methodist University to commission a satellite, to take overhead pictures using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to detect changes that aren’t visible at ground level. West...

In yet another terrifying video of a woman possessed by a demon has surfaced on YouTube. While the video starts off relatively calming, you can see and hear two women talking, in Spanish. The woman dressed in white, questions why the other will not answers her saying the girl was “not the same” and questioned why. When she got no response, she added, almost knowingly, “it’s because you’re dead” The girl then starts to repeat “he hears me, he hears me” and when the woman in white responds with “He hears you, look at who you are” the girls rage...

Next week, the University of Pennsylvania will seek approval for the first human trials of CRISPR, deploying the gene editing tool to treat certain types of cancer. CRISPR, shorthand for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, is a means of editing genomes with greater precision and efficiency than any other methods, by utilizing a naturally occurring bacterial defense mechanism that can be programmed to target specific segments of genetic code and edit the DNA. Though it holds major potential for preventing HIV infection, curing genetic diseases and even creating designer babies, the University of Pennsylvania believes it is ready to trial their CRISPR...

Since the discovery of Tabby’s star, late last year, potential explanations including comets, distortion, and space debris have been offered but with lack of scientific evidence, none have been confirmed. Now, a crowdfunding campaign has met its goal in raising over $100,000, which will be used to support a year-long study into KIC 8462852, analyzing the star’s luminosity with the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network. Started by Yale astronomer Tabby Boyajian last month, the kickstarter was created in an attempt to get the answers to this mysterious “alien megastructure” and hope to identify if the star is engulfed by an artificial...

There were numerous sightings from around the world this weekend of what all witnesses are claiming were UFO’s, which confirms new beliefs that UFO sighting are on the increase. The first story comes to us from Peru, where a man uploaded to YouTube shows footage of members of a broadcast team, specializing in UFOs react to not one but two UFO’s appear and disappear in the immediate vicinity of each other. Moments later, they were able to see the UFO again, allowing for the opportunity to record it and capture greater details on the supposed craft, which apparently...

In a record-breaking first, NASA successfully created the largest fire set intentionally in space. The experiment was conducted aboard the uncrewed Cygnus spacecraft, a cargo vessel built by Virginia-based company Orbital ATK, which had departed from the International Space Station days earlier, after a nearly three-month stay at the orbiting lab. NASA officials ignited a piece of cotton-fiberglass cloth 1.3 feet wide by 3.3 feet long, during the first stage of the Spacecraft Fire Experiment, named Saffire-1. Before Saffire-1, the largest intentionally set fire in space had burned a sample just the size of an index card, NASA officials have said. Saffire-1 was the...

A stunning new picture has led astronomers to the discovery of a potential exoplanet. A T-Tauri star named CVSO 30 that was first discovered in 2012 was found to host an exoplanet by using a detection method known as transit photometry, where the light from a star can be observed as dips as a planet travels in front of it. Now, observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, and the Calar Alto Observatory facilities in Spain have been combined and may show that there may also be a second planet. While the previously-detected planet, CVSO 30b,...

An unbelievable new discovery shows that Earth has a small “quasi-satellite” asteroid that keeps a constant orbit around our Sun, just as we do and may continue to do so for as long. Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first spotted by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Hawaii, operated by the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy and funded by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said “Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the...

Prof Hawking and Elon Musk warned us this would happen. A real experience from a science fiction nightmare. A robot created by Russian scientists and is designed to work in customer relations by interacting with humans realistically, answering questions and remembering every person it has ever met. The robot named Promobot was being worked on at a research lab but after an engineer accidentally left a perimeter gate open, Promobot walked straight out of the lab’s premises and ended up on the busy road outside. The robot was on the road outside the research lab for more than an hour and police...

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, it’s imperative that you have a plan. If you’re influenced by the movies, then you might be inclined to take your chances and head for the nearest pub or shopping mall in order to outwit a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies. Your average shopping mall is equipped with all […]

Nobody has ever put a lander on the far side of the Moon before, but China is well on its way to being the first. Over the weekend, the country launched a craft called Queqiao – a satellite that will orbit the Moon to relay messages from the yet-to-be-launched lander, Chang’e-4. The Moon is tidally […]

It only lasted for a savage, fleeting instant, but for 8 intense seconds last week an eagle, a fox, and a rabbit flew across the sky as one. In an incredibly rare scene, photographers have captured the moment a bald eagle swooped down upon a young red fox clutching a rabbit, and in its whirlwind […]

There is something special and awe-inspiring about watching new land form. This is what is now happening in Hawai’i as its Kīlauea volcano erupts. Lava is reaching the ocean and building land while producing spectacular plumes of steam. These eruptions are hugely important for the creation of new land. But they are also dangerous. Where […]

Calling all citizen scientists! A project looking for those dying, exploding stars called supernovae out in deep space is also searching for volunteers to help in the work, and you can get real science credit for it along the way – even if you’ve never done a second of star-gazing before. Astronomers from the Australian National […]

When Jean-Lou Justine received the first photograph of a giant worm with a head like a shovel, the biologist was astounded. Hammerhead flatworms, which grow to a foot or more in length, do not belong in European vegetable gardens. “We do not have that in France,” said Justine, a professor at the National Museum of […]

Astronauts go through many physiological changes during their time in spaceflight, including lower muscle mass and slower muscle development. Similar symptoms can occur in the muscles of people on Earth’s surface, too. In fact, it could affect everyone to some extent later in life. “Age-related skeletal muscle disorders, such as sarcopenia, are becoming a greater […]

Exposure to early life trauma can lead to poor physical and mental health in some individuals, which can be passed on to their children. Studies in mice show that at least some of the effects of stress can be transmitted to offspring via environmentally-induced changes in sperm miRNA levels. A new epigenetics study raises the […]

Most renderings and reconstructions of pterodactyls and other extinct flying reptiles show a flight pose much like that of bats, which fly with their hind limbs splayed wide apart. But a new method for inferring how ancient animals might have moved their joints suggests that pterosaurs probably couldn’t strike that pose. “Most of the work […]

Corals growing in high-latitude reefs in Western Australia can regulate their internal chemistry to promote growth under cooler temperatures, according to new research at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at The University of Western Australia. The study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that ocean warming may […]